Brake pedal goes up and down when pressed/wobble

[ainarssems]

Quality issues aside ECP now offers lifetime warranty for a little extra cost. I guess they reckon most of the cars are not kept for long enough by the same owner so they can make money on something that's mostly covered by manufacturers warranty already and there will be few cases were they will need to cover it outside manufacturers warranty. I recently had to replace Bosch S4 battery on A6 that I bought 5 years ago from ECP, it only has 4 years warranty so was not covered by manufacturer anymore and I had to buy a new one. They offered me lifetime warranty for £12 extra so I went for it. For most people it would be of no use as most people keep car less than 4 years already covered by manufacturer and would not be bothered to swap it out when selling the car. For me it made sense as while I am thinking A6 will be replaced in 2 years time the same battery also fits in S8 and also in a lot of newer cars including the newer A6 BiTDI which I am thinking of getting in 2 years time. I have kept the old battery so it will go back in A6 when I sell it as it's still OK if you drive it every day or in summer, it's just a bit weak in cold if you leave it without running for 3+ days but conductance tester shows about 60% health and recommends to replace it. The new battery with lifetime warranty will be kept and replaced when needed for free. It would have come in handy if I had lifetime warranty at the time when I bought the old battery and would have saved me £90 now. They also offer lifetime warranty on many other parts.

I think I have seen adverts from KwikFit or Halfords for brakes for life where they replace worn or faulty brakes for free for as long as you own the vehicle. Again most people does not keep the cars long enough for brakes to be replaced more than once so they make money selling it with very little costs. But If you intend to keep it for long time it's worth considering.

[tc4332]

Kwikfit used to do it with exhausts.
I once bought, extremely cheaply, a Vauxhall Astra Estate from work. Two years old and they had replaced the exhaust with lifetime replacement. I took that car all over Europe, even into Berlin in '89 when the wall came down. They did replace parts as needed whilst I had the car.
Don't know if they still do it.
I could not see why they did it at the time but in afterthought it does make sense, money for nothing in most cases.

[Johnmed]

I hadn’t taken any offence Lee 👍🏻.

I like to think I’m competent, but sometimes I get impatient and forgetful. I blame parenthood and age.

Anyway, small update. Took the front wheels off today, (2°C in the rain. I’m bonkers, but it meant I couldn’t visit the in-laws) and stripped the brakes down, and cleaned everything once more, and refitted with new slider pins and some sparingly applied silicone grease.

Had a small drive and the brakes seem much improved, but I’ll reserve judgement till I’ve been to work and back.

[Johnmed]

Update 2.

Having previously used the brakes gingerly for a few thousand miles I followed an EBC guide to bedding in brakes:

‘make a further 10 stops from 60 mph to 10 mph in succession with a deliberate attempt to get the brakes hot. Some smells may occur even slight smoke during this final heat up stage of the pads in early life. Then coast the vehicle for a mile to allow discs to cool. Do not pull up and park vehicle with brake excessively hot. You must try to get the discs down to below 60-80 degrees C temperature before parking the vehicle’.

This seems to have VASTLY improved things. I’ve yet to really needed to stomp on the brakes, but under normal use the pedal movement seems to have normalised.

[Johnmed]

Update 3.

Spoke with ECP’s, as the brakes still aren’t bob on having replaced the retaining springs recently. Going to exchange the Brembo front pads and discs this Saturday for Pagids. We’ll see how that pans out.

[MikkiJayne]

That's a very interesting report of ECP's suspect branded parts. I try to use genuine parts whenever possible, but for brakes & clutches etc ECP are too cheap to ignore. I had an A4 wheel bearing from them last only 2 weeks before it was groaning again. It wasn't worth the hassle to go through their warranty process so I just bought another one from ebay which has been fine.

I bought a Bosch airflow meter for my S8 from them a couple of years ago, and recently I've been feeling like its gone bad again, but kept telling myself 'its a proper Bosch one, it can't be bad in only ten thousand miles'. I wonder...?

[Johnmed]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

That's a very interesting report of ECP's suspect branded parts. I try to use genuine parts whenever possible, but for brakes & clutches etc ECP are too cheap to ignore. I had an A4 wheel bearing from them last only 2 weeks before it was groaning again. It wasn't worth the hassle to go through their warranty process so I just bought another one from ebay which has been fine.

I bought a Bosch airflow meter for my S8 from them a couple of years ago, and recently I've been feeling like its gone bad again, but kept telling myself 'its a proper Bosch one, it can't be bad in only ten thousand miles'. I wonder...?

This. Don’t want to think bad of ECP’s, but it doesn’t look good for them from mine and others’ experiences. I’ve heard of Bosch items from ECP’s failing quite often, on here and in ‘real life’ which doesn’t sit right with me, Bosch being Bosch...